No We Can't: The New Normal of High Unemployment

Remember back in 2004 President Obama's criticism of unemployment under former President George W. Bush when it touched 5.5 percent? There should be virtual howls coming from every journalistic corner in the country about the last four years of high unemployment, but instead it's the sound of silence. Worse, now the Fed projects unemployment to remain well above 6 percent for at least the next three years: "The earliest the Fed sees unemployment dropping below 6.5 percent is the end of 2014." This means that President Obama's tenure as president will have as one of its benchmarks one of the worst and longest-running unemployment records in recent history -- and he will own it all by himself.

It is a scary consideration when one has to make an effort to recall when unemployment was low, taking it for granted with employers offering multiple job options to interested takers. Compare that distant past with the last few years, and today's situation extended across all of Obama's second term and the new "normal" of Obama crystallizes: high unemployment, high energy prices, higher taxes, eventually higher retail prices as the Fed's "quantitative easing" permeates the economy, higher food stamp use, higher deficits as far as the eye can see, higher government spending. Everything is higher, but nothing is better.

Remember back in 2004 President Obama's criticism of unemployment under former President George W. Bush when it touched 5.5 percent? There should be virtual howls coming from every journalistic corner in the country about the last four years of high unemployment, but instead it's the sound of silence. Worse, now the Fed projects unemployment to remain well above 6 percent for at least the next three years: "The earliest the Fed sees unemployment dropping below 6.5 percent is the end of 2014." This means that President Obama's tenure as president will have as one of its benchmarks one of the worst and longest-running unemployment records in recent history -- and he will own it all by himself.

It is a scary consideration when one has to make an effort to recall when unemployment was low, taking it for granted with employers offering multiple job options to interested takers. Compare that distant past with the last few years, and today's situation extended across all of Obama's second term and the new "normal" of Obama crystallizes: high unemployment, high energy prices, higher taxes, eventually higher retail prices as the Fed's "quantitative easing" permeates the economy, higher food stamp use, higher deficits as far as the eye can see, higher government spending. Everything is higher, but nothing is better.